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NOONAN GETS A POINT.
Peggy Noonan's columns are typically rambling disquisitions about her social life among elite Republicans and how she feels about that, and today's offering is no exception -- we get to hear about McCain's quiet dignity, how Bush kept us safe, a holiday party in NoVa, and a reference to a report on nuclear weapons. But one point rings true:
By the way, he should both reorder the Department of Homeland Security, that hopeless bureaucracy, and change its name. Homeland is a Nazi-ish word, not an American concept at all. And at this point "Homeland Security" is associated more with pointless harassment than safety. No one knows who came up with it. Probably some guy with two Christmas trees in Northern Virginia.
I agree! "Homeland" reeks of a European-style ethnic nationalism, a kind of jus sanguinis that we've never embraced in the United States and never should. Call it the Domestic Security Agency, call it the Department of National Security, anything but what it is. It's a small thing, but it's a season of bipartisanship and I'll find my consensus where I may.
--Tim Fernholz
COMMENTS (10)
Amen. And some people are now calling very young kids the beginning of the Homeland Generation. I REALLY hope that name doesn't stick.
Posted by: Chris O. | December 5, 2008 4:21 PM
You don't like terms evocative of "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer!"?
Posted by: Linkmeister | December 5, 2008 4:32 PM
I suspect these departmental name changes are expensive--but it gets my vote. Anything, but don't call it "Homeland"
Posted by: ropty | December 5, 2008 4:33 PM
Puleez!
Nooner finally wakes up and figures out "Department of Homeland Security" sounds like something dreamed up by Joseph Goebbels?
After getting the vapors over Commander Codpiece in his flightsuit?
The rest of the non-braindead public was saying this back in 2002!!!
Posted by: CParis | December 5, 2008 5:05 PM
a kind of jus sanguinis
Am I wrong to suspect I was not the only person who read the Wikipedia page on jus sanguinis to see which past or future Presidents would be disqualified if those "Obama is not a natural-born citizen because his father had British citizenship" loons were taken seriously?
Posted by: cminus | December 5, 2008 5:44 PM
It sounds better in the original German: Heimatsicherheitsministerium.
Posted by: Atreju | December 5, 2008 11:26 PM
Yeah, Thom Hartmann was saying this a long time ago on his radio show.
Posted by: Matt Searight | December 6, 2008 8:10 PM
Peggy Noonan is making this proposal because she owns stock at Dunder Mifflin; the company that will provide all the paper, business cards and so on for the newly named entity.
Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to!
Posted by: Irregardless | December 6, 2008 11:07 PM
What is the "two Christmas trees" line supposed to mean?
Anyway, I thought Lieberman came up with the name "Homeland Security". So it was some guy with two Hanukkah bushes.
Posted by: Brock | December 8, 2008 9:54 AM
I thought Lieberman came up with the name "Homeland Security". So it was some guy with two Hanukkah bushes.
Posted by: air compressor | November 19, 2009 10:04 PM